Fears mother of baby found in sewage pipe in China could attempt suicide

Chinese police have claimed they fear the mother of a two-day-old baby found in a sewage pipe after apparently being flushed headfirst down a toilet is so distraught she may attempt to take her own life.

By Tom Phillips in Shanghai

6:30AM BST 29 May 2013

On Saturday, rescue workers in the eastern province of Zhejiang spent two hours battling to free the child from an L-shaped pipe beneath a communal toilet inside a block of flats in the city of Jinhua.

Miraculously, the 5lb baby boy survived and was rushed to hospital where he was cut free with pliers and a saw. Doctors nicknamed the child "Baby 59", after the number of the incubator in which he was placed.

"Baby 59" is now reported to be in a stable condition at a local hospital and police have said his mother could face an attempted murder charge. The case has prompted an online outpouring of grief and fury with hundreds of thousands of Chinese micro-bloggers using the internet to slam the mother for her alleged actions.

On Wednesday, Mr Fang, a representative of the Public Security Bureau in Zhejiang's Pujiang county, told The Daily Telegraph that the media storm surrounding the case had left the baby's 22-year-old mother in emotional tatters.

"She is currently in quite a dire mental state – after all she is not married – and there has been a bombardment of criticism from the public," said Mr Fang.

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The newborn baby that had to be rescued by firefighters after being flushed down a toilet is seen recovering in hospital

"It will not help anyone if the mother becomes so depressed that she ends up committing suicide," he added.

Reports in the local media suggest the mother – who has been given the alias Xiao Fei – only realized she was carrying a baby three months into her pregnancy. She subsequently attempted to conceal her pregnancy by using loose-fitting clothes and confronted the baby's father. He rejected her appeals for help, she told police.

With insufficient money for an abortion, the mother told police she had been forced to secretly deliver the baby inside a toilet in the residential building where she lived.

The mother has reportedly claimed that after feeling abdominal pains on Saturday she rushed to the bathroom and gave birth, with the baby accidentally slipping down the toilet.

Police are not convinced by that version of events, since they found no trace of blood in the toilet, suggesting she did not give birth there.

"We can't trust her version of events alone," said Mr Fang, the police official.

During a search of the woman's home earlier this week police found toys and blood-stained toilet paper, according to reports in the state-run Zhejiang News website.

Mr Fang, the public security official, said local police were still searching for the baby's father, who is reported to have refused to acknowledge paternity of the child.

"[We] are still looking for the father who has changed his mobile number and everything," he said.

Zhejiang News reported that the mother had been present during the baby's dramatic rescue on Saturday afternoon but said police had not realized she was the boy's mother.